On Jul 3, 2006, at 10:08 AM, Shane Hathaway wrote:
Well, that's a very popular view in some communities, and it's
popular with some of us in this group.
Unfortunately, it seems that the different communities within
hackerdom are generally unaware of each other. When I was in the
BBS community, I thought the BBS community was so big that there
could not be any other community quite so big. I though there just
weren't enough computer geeks to support another community of that
size. Then I discovered the Java community and found out a
community could be even bigger. Then I discovered the Linux
community and expanded my view of what big was. Then I discovered
the Python community, and that finally convinced me that I am
completely unable to comprehend the size of a big community. It's
like trying to count stars.
So I've decided that choosing the technology with the biggest
community is a thoroughly misguided approach. Choose communities
and technologies by quality, not quantity.
Of course, I'm preaching to the choir here. :-)
Shane
Well, by 'not a popular idea' I meant it doesn't currently have
sufficient momentum to actually make a dent in the number of low-
level systems programs written in C and C++. Certainly people are
moving away from C-derived languages (albeit slowly) for applications
and higher-level systems, but beyond research projects no one is
writing operating systems or device drivers in a language outside the
C family, except perhaps for a few Ada or assembly projects.
The sort of language I think would be best for that kind of
programming doesn't even exist right now, although I think it would
draw at least a small community if it did exist. So, until I get a
research grant or something to write it myself, I can't choose to use
it. :)
--Levi
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